79 Malibu 2014 challenge

First build thread. I set up a photo bucket account. And will start pic tomorrow. The last time she was driven was 2004.

Some details : is my first car,drove in highschool and thru college I bought it September 1987.

I put about 100k miles her.

She has a 350 4spd rv cam ,882 heads Saginaw 4spd 2:20 rear gear. I parked it in 97. Put a hitch on it in 02 used for a tow vehicle to 02-04 challenges then parked since 04 till now. Wow 10 yrs. I am amazed it runs on the fuel in the tank. I put in cd2 lead treatment and the red fuel storage stuff.

It is barn fresh about 1/2" of mouse poop on the intake. But she started and idled good sign. It is going to be my rallycross car for this year too 1 event is May 3

Let's see if I can remember where the lifetime shocks came from.

Finished stripping the interior out and seeing how bad the cancer is...Quite bad

I hope you like weldin' son.

If I had peeled up the carpet and been greeted with that sight:

More Pics!!!

When you say rallycross on May 3rd, which event are you talking about?

The one in Attica Indiana. But the Malibu wont be going, too much work. I am going to take a 96 Honda Odyssey though.

Back to the Malibu.

I picked up some wheels and tires from a 02 firebird. Went to test fit no go need 2" spacers. I am going to get some bolt on hub spacers.

I found a bolt on rear disk break kit for 299. and 98-03 Blazer 2wd front spindles and breaks will net me 12" front breaks. Off to pull a part this week.

Found a new/used floor that I am going to trade an extra set of rear tubular suspension arms for. I paid about $65 for them 4 or 5 years ago.

found some front stoppers from a 2002 2wd blazer only 150.00

on the look out for 98 up firebird rear disk brake set up.

We ran drum brakes on our 78 malibu while road racing. They were awesome once we got a set of porterfield shoes. Much cheaper and the pedal feel is much better!

Fix that camber loss in the front before you worry about rear brakes!

Shorter front upper a arms are in your future...

Good Luck!

Rob R.

oh yea, get a steering shaft from a jeep grand cherokee. It has 2 universal joints instead of the rag joint (which I am sure is hosed). Also, get a steering box and arm from a GTA or WS6 trans am. It is night and day different!

Bilstein shocks are uber cheap for teh car and you can mix and match moog springs from various cars to get the spring rate and height you want. They are like 65$ for a pair of springs. Easy Peasy!

Let me know if you have any questions about how to get this thing to handle...

Rob R.

Ub machine has a pair of tall ball joint upper control arms i designed for these. Makes an incredible difference.

S10 bilstein shocks bolt on in the front and work great.

Rear disc are highly overrated. I have yet to find an actual need for them compared to a set of well set up drums.

I built a roadrace s10 whether ch is essentially the same front end as a g-body. Just narrower.

Then why are all factory performance cars 4 wheel disk?

Which upper arms did you develop?

I am looking for spring rates too. Fully dressed street car with some extra bracing added. All iron engine except the intake. Iron Saginaw 4spd. I am driving to the challenge towing a small trailer.

Google "moog spring chart". It lists a bunch of front and rear springs that fit the g body. It includes the spring rates and approximate lowering on a stock g body.

We ran the stiffest spring avail with a 1.5" drop. The drop wasn't actually 1.5 because the car was gutted.

Get yourself a huge rear swaybar.

I found a 98 firebird rear disk setup for 75. I figure that the brackets help hold the axel in in case of breakage.

I want more info on the upper control arms. I prefer not guessing. The plan is to start cleaning up parts for installation Sunday.

The problem with the stock arms is that you have camber loss as the suspension is compressed. A shorter upper arm or longer spindle (tall ball joints) can get that back to a camber gain situation. Call ub machine and tell them what you wanna do. They can help.

I believe the axles are different between the disc and drum rears. Also, the axles are different for the early cars (like yours) and the later cars. This rear disc issue may be.more difficult than it looks.

I may be wrong on the discs. As I stated earlier, I never did it.

Good luck! Rob R.

I will be starting on the rear this next week and will post my progress. rally cross in the odyssey Saturday.

The ones I developed with ub machine use c10 balljoints. Get you are nto performance alignment specs with a minimal amount of shims. About a degree of negative camber gain per inch and more caster. Pair is about a hundred dollars and balljoints are about twenty each. They flat transform these vehicles. Go on s10planet and there is a full write up with part nukbers.

Do you need to use the tall lower ball joints too ? I will call them on Monday.

You should use tall ball joints. Because they use truck ball joints, they may be taller anyway.

the truck ball joints for the upper arms a .5 taller. and cheap.

lower balljoints are available for 50 each from proforged. via summit. yes, they work, just not the ampunt of drastic improvement that the upper setup makes.

also, fat rubber and blazer bilstein front shocks. you will thank me.

I already have the center link and tie rods that improves bump steer. looks like it does it by lowering the mounting point for the tie rods. Would boxing in the lower arm help ?

Boxing the lower arms should help eliminate wheel hop which can be a problem with those cars. Cheaper than buying new springs look at the moog chart then go to the junkyard. We ran on a banked oval and in classes we had to run stock springs without jack screws we would use cut down springs from a Caddy.

The front lowers for boxing.

I have a nice set of tubular rear control arms that I did some horse trading for (traded a car that I only had 100 in for the arms plus front and rear sway bars and get this 100 cash)net cost was 0$

i tried it and felt no difference.

lower tall ball joints primarily help with bump steer, a little with negative camber gain. again, tried them, didn't really see the need. especially in your case with the revised linkage.